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Thursday, November 23, 2006

unbelievable? believe it!

This sounds like Dean Cain's famous line in Ripley's Believe it or not!. Read the rest of the entry, and you will know why.



In basketball, it is rare for little guy to block a shot from big guy. I know it well, as I always end up having my shots swatted away by the bigger guys in the game. (I do swat balls away from players of my size or smaller, when I was younger.)

All I am saying is, it's really hard to have a clean block at a guy who's taller than you. Unless, you have great leaping ability, and good anticipation timing. To be able to block those shots, one would have been really thrilled, really.

In NBA, it's no different too. It's rare for point guards, to block centers, or power-forwards. That's because those guys are almost 7 feet tall, where typical point guards are at 6 feet.

For old record, here's a clip I managed to dig from YouTube.com. It's a clip of point guard Earl Watson blocking a shot from Shawn Bradley. Earl Watson stands at 6ft 1in, and Shawn Bradley is 7ft 6in. (Note: Shawn Bradley wasn't the tallest player in NBA history, there were Gheorghe Mureşan, who stands at 7ft 7in, and Manute Bol, who was also listed same height as Muresan.)

Video 1

(In case the video doesn't load, click here for the link.)

Back to today's focus, which is a block made possible by greater height difference from the first video. Nate Robinson, 5ft 9in, blocked Yao Ming's, 7ft 5in, layup attempt. Height difference between Yao Ming and Nate Robinson is 51cm, or about 1ft 8in; while Earl Watson and Shawn Bradley were separated by about 43cm (1ft 5in).

Enough said, the picture will tell you everything. Just look at the size between them, will ya?


" Not the defensive matchup you'd expect: Nate Robinson on Yao. Robinson managed to block a Yao layup attempt at the end of the third quarter.
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images "



Video 2

(In case the video doesn't load, click here for the link.)

Houston Rockets defeated New York Knicks 97-90 in that game. Yao Ming finished with 26 points and 9 rebounds, while Nate Robinson had 4 assists and a block he would remember for the rest of his life. Nate was held scoreless though.




" FYI Corner: All the big guys I mentioned just now are all of different nationalities: Shawn Bradley (Germany/America), Gheorghe Mureşan (Romania), Manute Bol (Sudan), and Yao Ming (China). Both the little guys are Americans. "

" Photo Note: The photo is copyright of NBA.com, and the caption is also quoted from NBA.com; while Dean Cain's Ripley photo is of a result of google search. "

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